Category: Analysis
[Minor] Barbour Trying Failed Rovian Strategy in Mississippi
In his column this week, Bill Minor argues that Gov. Haley Barbour is trying to turn Mississippi into the latest K Street Project, at any cost:
Evidently Haley Barbour is attempting in Mississippi what Karl Rove failed to do in Washington: create a permanent Republican majority.
Barbour, who believes in top-down management of political power, has obviously set out to elect Republicans to all state offices, creating a Cabinet beholden to him, unlike anything ever seen in Mississippi.
His reach doesn’t stop with putting GOP loyalists in state offices but also into both houses of the Legislature, even by subtly undermining the election of the House speaker.
Posted by ladd at 05:07 PM on 10/31/07. Discuss (1)
[JFP] The ‘Mississippi, Believe It’ Campaign, Rethunk
Stop the presses. The Jackson Free Press is patting Clarion-Ledger folksy columnist Orley Hood on the back this week for challenging the “paranoia and xenophobia” of the “Mississippi, Believe It” ad campaign. Read a very long blog thread (in which we re-fight the War of Northern Aggression), and the editor’s note this week, “Of Paranoia and Xenophobia.”
By the way, this is what Orley said in his column about the campaign that the JFP agrees with so strongly:
It is, I suppose, all well and good, defending our territory, talking up our heritage of great writers while ignoring our heritage of illiteracy. As polished and professional as the campaign is, theres just that little bit of paranoia and xenophobia that shows through when we so vigorously stand up to what we see as unfair criticism from outsiders.
Posted by ladd at 06:50 PM on 04/05/07. Discuss (2)
[Blog] Wonkette Disses Mississippi Easter Egg
So, Wonkette Inc.--we hear there’s an Army of Wonkette clones over there these days--is dissing every state’s Easter Egg this week. Um, cute. But her/their comment about Mississippi’s egg seems to be about as original as selling your blog to a corporate blog entity.
Here’s the snipe: “If you just said, Hey that looks like something the doctors pulled out of Trent Lott, then give yourself a racist pat on the back, because this egg is from Mississippi!” It would be one thing if the egg had the Stars & Bars on it, or “We Heart Strom” or even the embarassing Mississippi state flag, but it’s just a flowery egg design. It seems the mere mention of Mississippi brings to the Wonki’s minds the idea of Trent Lott and racism. To their small-stuck-way-up-their-butt minds, that is.
Put it this way: It would at least be funny if it was, well, funny.
Posted by ladd at 06:25 PM on 04/05/07. Discuss (15)
[Analysis] Abortion Still Legal in Mississippi--No Kidding
Charlie Mitchell of The Vicksburg Post explains to Mississippians that abortion is still legal in Mississippi even after the Legislature spent so much time supposedly outlawing it. Surely to goodness people knew this was just a political stunt, right? It’s not like we have other important issues they need to be dealing with, like the state of foster care or mistreatment of kids in training schools they should be spending their taxpayer-funded time on.
Sigh.
Posted by ladd at 06:18 PM on 04/05/07. Discuss (3)
[Analysis] Barbour Lobbying Firm Staying Blood Red
The Politico in Washington is reporting that Barbour’s old (?) lobbying firm is holding steady against Democratic business even in a new D.C.:
Barbour Griffith & Rogers was founded by political infighter and now Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R), and his old partners are now bucking the post-midterm trend of bringing in a Democrat. It’s a counterintuitive strategy that carries obvious risks, not the least being diminished access to the emerging power centers on Capitol Hill. But the firm’s path, which plots a decidedly different course than most other GOP shops in town, also rests on a gamble: that at a time of razor-thin partisan margins in Congress and increasingly complex public policy, what you know can be as important—and lucrative—as who you know. That helps explain why Barbour Griffith & Rogers was signing on a handful of policy experts last year when many Republican-controlled lobbying shops were scooping up key Democratic aides and operatives.
Among the firm’s new hired guns: Stephen Rademaker, former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist’s national policy director; Mary Lacey Reuther, a health care expert from the Bush administration; and Celeste Ward, a military operations and Iraq expert who worked at the Pentagon.
Posted by ladd at 06:46 PM on 02/26/07. Discuss (0)
[Analysis] Abortion Bills Motivated by Politics?
The Associated Press is analyzing last week’s abortion bills by quoting Sen. Gloria Williamson saying that it was all about getting votes in an election year.
When the Mississippi House debated a bill to ban most abortions in the state, 16 of the 121 members eventually voted no, but none of them stood up to argue against the plan. Some lawmakers say it was no coincidence that the contentious issue came up for debate just a week before candidates’ qualifying deadline for this year’s elections.
“I think this was done in a political year for political reasons,” Sen. Gloria Williamson, D-Philadelphia, said the day after the bill passed the House. Thursday is the final day for candidates to file qualifying papers for a host of offices in Mississippi, from governor to county supervisor.
Posted by ladd at 06:17 PM on 02/26/07. Discuss (0)
[Desk] So, What IS the Answer Then?
In a Q&A today with Rick Looser, the head of an ad agency promoting a “positive Mississippi” message, The Clarion-Ledger’s Sid Salter passed up an opportunity to ask a vital follow-up question after Looser stated the following:
From the inside out, Mississippi must continue to address those things that make us first on every bad list and last on every good list. Education, health care and other quality-of-life issues have to take priority. Throwing money at these problems is not the answer.
So, the obvious follow-up is, “So how can Mississippi improve education, health care and other quality-of-life issues without spending money?
Odd interview.
Posted by ladd at 09:52 AM on 01/28/07. Discuss (7)
[Analysis] Barbour a ‘Man Among Boys’ at the Capitol
The Clarion-Ledger’s main two columnists had an interesting pair of analysis pieces in Sunday’s paper about Barbour handling in the Legislature. For his part, David Hampton took a page out of the Sid Salter book when he wrote:
Gov. Haley Barbour has proven once again that he can’t be outsmarted when it comes to politics. He is a man among boys at the Capitol. It has gotten to the point that he seems to just toy with opponents for the fun of it. Not that he had any serious political problems going into the 2007 elections, but his latest move to blunt his critics on education funding gets rid of his biggest negative.
Wait: “a man among boys”? Meowwww. That sounds like a “whose bigger"-level quip if the Desk has ever heard one. And we wonder if Hampton knows that there are?wait for it?GIRLS in the Legislature, too?!?
Otherwise, his analysis is just a bit of Salter-esque lapdoggery. The truth is that Barbour was opposing MAEP funding until he realized he wasn’t going to get away with it in an election year?and the people have a right to know that. Whether the Dems’ TV ad campaign will reach the right people with that messages remains to be seen.
And it seems clear who the all-male editorial board at The Clarion-Ledger is likely to endorse as governor this year, eh? That didn’t take long atall. 
Oh, and here’s Salter’s education-politics analysis in the same edition. He might even sound a bit Hampton-esque. Naaaa.
Posted by ladd at 11:05 PM on 01/23/07. Discuss (0)
[Analysis] Kosciusko Editor Ticked at Education ‘Advocates’
Mark Thornton, the editor/publisher of the Star-Herald in Kosciusko, is fed up with all these supposed “education” advocates who want your hard-earned money “either because they?re trying to protect their own jobs or because of their own deficiencies as parents.” They even dare to put innocent children up to wheedling it out of you! He whines in a column today:
Anytime you hear a so-called education proponent or school official say these four words ? ?It?s for the children? ? grab your wallet and run. Fast. Hind-end first, so they can?t pick your pocket on the way out. That tired old line gets pulled out any time they?re lobbying for more funding, and it?s almost always bellowed or shrieked in front of TV cameras from the steps of the Capitol as a crowd, whipped into a wide-eyed frenzy, declares impending failure for all school children if they don?t get $30 million more. My toes curl every time this oh-so-predictable scenario gets repeated. It?s just like when someone in sports, entertainment or business says, ?It?s not about the money.? Another tired old line comes to mind: Don?t tinkle on my loafers and tell me it?s raining.
Posted by ladd at 12:10 PM on 01/17/07. Discuss (0)
[Desk] Clarion-Ledger Supports Barbour’s Crime Ideas
The Clarion-Ledger editorialized today on behalf of Barbour’s proposals to target felons who commit gun crimes (harder than non-felons who commit and to ratchet up the drug war in Mississippi. The editorial closes with:
Drugs are the driving force behind much of the crime that affects average Mississippians. Increasing the number of state narcotics officers would bolster enforcement locally, which is especially needed in light of federal budget cuts. Fighting drugs and illegal guns is effective crime fighting.
The question is: What is the research to support their last statement? Does the drug war lower crime?
Posted by ladd at 12:00 PM on 01/17/07. Discuss (0)
[Desk] Melton Taps Leland Speed for Jackson Eco-Devo
At Tuesday night’s City Council meeting, Jackson Mayor Frank Melton announced that former Mississippi Development Authority Director Leland Speed will be the next director of the Jackson Revelopment Agency, which coordinates large developments in the city. This announcement is politically ironic because Melton’s staunchest supporters in Jackson’s black community do not like Speed at all, and see him as the symbol of white racism in the city. Last September, Melton supporter Charles Tisdale wrote in his Jackson Advocate editorial that Leland Speed is a primary reason that Harvey Johnson would want back into office. Tisdale writes:
?Undoubtedly the unfinished business is to finish selling out to the likes of Leland Speed and John Elkington (Beale Street developer), so they can more efficiently destroy black neighborhoods and culture.?
Sure enough, on Tuesday night, typical Melton follower Kenneth Stokes was outraged by the Speed announcement, saying: “I’m not going to curse. But I’m going to have to see what he’s going to be able to do. As of today, I’m not that kind of believer.”
Read more about the bizarre politics of Melton-Speed-Tisdale & Co. here.
Posted by ladd at 11:26 AM on 01/17/07. Discuss (6)
[Analysis] Ledger Favors Minimum-Wage Increase, But …
The Clarion-Ledger today editorializes in favor of the minimum-wage bill passed by the Mississippi House last week?but outright ignores the clause that discriminates about young workers in the bill. To read up on the dicrimination in the bill, read the StateDesk discussion on the issue from lat week.
Posted by ladd at 11:09 AM on 01/16/07. Discuss (1)
[Live Blog] Barbour’s ‘State of the State’ Address Verbatim
Madam Lt. Governor, Mr. Speaker, ladies and gentlemen of the Legislature, distinguished guests and fellow Mississippians: For the fourth time I?m honored to report to you on the State of our State. I treat tonight as very special, for tonight is the eighth, and at least for now, the last time Lt. Governor Amy Tuck will be on this podium for a governor?s State of the State address. And Governor Tuck, I consider it my privilege to recognize and salute you for your dedicated and effective service to the people of Mississippi.
As you know, the Lt. Governor lost her dear mother a few weeks ago. Amy, you have been in Marsha and my thoughts and prayers . . . and so have the families of your colleagues, Senator Bunky Huggins, Senator Billy Harvey and Rep. Mae Whittington . . .and even this weekend we lost one of the true gentlemen of this Legislature, Representative Leonard Morris. Please lift up Belinda and their daughters in your prayers. Now I ask you to join me in a moment of silent prayer in memory of these fine public servants.
Despite our losses and difficulties we have so much to be thankful for. For me that starts with the First Lady who has been my first lady for thirty-five years. Whether in the weeks and months after Katrina, when she went to the Coast seventy of the first ninety days to help our people most in need, to when she sets an example with, ?Haley, let?s go walking?, to tonight, when she told me my speech is too long; Marsha has been the centering influence for me and my family. I appreciate her and am very grateful for her.
Posted by ladd at 06:11 PM on 01/15/07. Discuss (22)
[Analysis] What Will Barbour Highlight in State of the State Tonight?
Geoff Pender of the Sun-Herald says he may be positive, not negative:
His first, back in 2004, wasn’t very rosy. He outlined myriad problems, including a “$720 million budget hole” he blamed on his predecessor. His main message then: “Mississippi can do better.” Well, has it? Barbour most assuredly will say yes, and in many areas fiscal, his opponents would be hard pressed to disagree, although whether he can claim credit can and will be argued vociferously through the November elections. Among many other points, Barbour will also most assuredly say that after losing more than 38,000 jobs during the four years prior to his taking office, and despite the loss of thousands of jobs temporarily from Katrina, there are now 25,000 more people working in Mississippi than when he took office. And, I predict he’ll note, Mississippians’ personal income rose nearly 11 percent from 2004 to 2005, and state revenue grew 4 percent, 8 percent and 9 percent during his first three years. [...] Finally, in the turning-lemons-into-lemonade category, Barbour, tarred as being anti-education and downright cold when it comes to social programs, will claim more has been spent on K-12 education on his watch than any before and that he’s helped right the ship of Medicaid, at least as much as it can be righted.
But his opponents will counter much of this, I predict.
Posted by ladd at 11:31 AM on 01/15/07. Discuss (0)
[Desk] MPB to Air ‘State of the State’; StateDesk to Blog It
Mississippi Public Broadcasting will air Gov. Haley Barbour’s “State of the State” address on Monday, Jan. 15, at 6 p.m. You can hear a live feed on MPB’s Web site. The Jackson Free Press will be live-blogging the speech right here on State Desk. Tune in the live feed, or your radio, and have your screen open to post live comments during the speech!
Posted by ladd at 03:23 PM on 01/12/07. Discuss (0)
